Part 64 (1/2)

Darius sat in dull silence. The younger men were talking about the Bursley Society for the Prosecution of Felons, of which Albert had just been made a member. Whatever it might have been in the past, the Society for the Prosecution of Felons was now a dining-club and little else. Its annual dinner, admitted to be the chief oratorical event of the year, was regarded as strictly exclusive, because no member, except the president, had the right to bring a guest to it. Only 'Felons,' as they humorously named themselves, and the reporters of the ”Signal,”

might listen to the eloquence of Felons. Albert Benbow, who for years had been hearing about the brilliant funniness of the American Consul at these dinners, was so flattered by his Felonry that he would have been ready to put the letters S P F after his name.

”Oh, you'll have to join!” said he to Edwin, kindly urgent, like a man who, recently married, goes about telling all bachelors that they positively must marry at once. ”You ought to get it fixed up before the next feed.”

Edwin shook his head. Though he, too, dreamed of the Felons' Dinner as a repast really worth eating, though he wanted to be a Felon, and considered that he ought to be a Felon, and wondered why he was not already a Felon, he repeatedly a.s.sured Albert that Felonry was not for him.

”You're a Felon, aren't you, dad?” Albert shouted at Darius.

”Oh yes, father's a Felon,” said Edwin. ”Has been ever since I can remember.”

”Did ye ever speak there?” asked Albert, with an air of good-humoured condescension.

Darius's elbow slipped violently off the tablecloth, and a knife fell to the floor and a plate after it. Darius went pale.

”All right! All right! Don't be alarmed, dad!” Albert rea.s.sured him, picking up the things. ”I was asking ye, did ye ever speak there--make a speech?”

”Yes,” said Darius heavily.

”Did you now!” Albert murmured, staring at Darius. And it was exactly as if he had said, ”Well, it's extraordinary that a foolish physical and mental wreck such as you are now, should ever have had wit and courage enough to rise and address the glorious Felons!”

Darius glanced up at the gas, with a gesture that was among Edwin's earliest recollections, and then he fixed his eyes dully on the fire, with head bent and muscles lax.

”Have a cigarette--that'll cheer ye up,” said Albert.

Darius made a negative sign.

”He's very tired, seemingly,” Albert remarked to Edwin, as if Darius had not been present.

”Yes,” Edwin muttered, examining his father. Darius appeared ten years older than his age. His thin hair was white, though the straggling beard that had been allowed to grow was only grey. His face was sunken and pale, but even more striking was the extreme pallor of the hands with their long clean fingernails, those hands that had been red and rough, tools of all work. His clothes hung somewhat loosely on him, and a shawl round his shoulders was awry. The comatose melancholy in his eyes was acutely painful to see--so much so that Edwin could not bear to look long at them. ”Father,” Edwin asked him suddenly, ”wouldn't you like to go to bed?”

And to his surprise Darius said, ”Yes.”

”Well, come on then.”

Darius did not move.

”Come on,” Edwin urged. ”I'm sure you're overtired, and you'll be better in bed.”

He took his father by the arm, but there was no responsive movement.

Often Edwin noticed this capricious, obstinate att.i.tude; his father would express a wish to do a certain thing, and then would make no effort to do it. ”Come!” said Edwin more firmly, pulling at the lifeless arm. Albert sprang up, and said that he would a.s.sist. One on either side, they got Darius to his feet, and slowly walked him out of the room. He was very exasperating. His weight and his inertia were terrible. The spectacle suggested that either Darius was pretending to be a carca.s.s, or Edwin and Albert were pretending that a carca.s.s was alive. On the stairs there was not room for the three abreast. One had to push, another to pull: Darius seemed wilfully to fall backwards if pressure were released. Edwin restrained his exasperation; but though he said nothing, his sharp half-vicious pull on that arm seemed to say, ”Confound you! Come up--will you!” The last two steps of the stair had a peculiar effect on Darius. He appeared to shy at them, and then finally to jib. It was no longer a reasonable creature that they were getting upstairs, but an incalculable and mysterious beast. They lifted him on to the landing, and he stood on the landing as if in his sleep.

Both Edwin and Albert were breathless. This was the man who since the beginning of his illness had often walked to Hillport and back! It was incredible that he had ever walked to Hillport and back. He pa.s.sed more easily along the landing. And then he was in his bedroom.

”Father going to bed?” Maggie called out from below.

”Yes,” said Albert. ”We've just been getting him upstairs.”

”Oh! That's right,” Maggie said cheerfully. ”I thought he was looking very tired to-night.”

”He gave us a doing,” said the breathless Albert in a low voice at the door of the bedroom, smiling, and glancing at his cigarette to see if it was still alight.